1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle braking-force control device that apply braking forces to predetermined wheels to prevent skidding and that appropriately control driving forces.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a braking-force control device have been developed and put to practical use in vehicles, which detects an oversteer condition and an understeer condition of a vehicle and applies a braking force to a predetermined wheel to prevent the vehicle from skidding.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-233195 (having U.S. Pat. No. 6,415,215 as a family member) discloses a technology that increases braking forces of both front and rear outside wheels when the vehicle is in an oversteer condition during a turning operation so as to generate yaw moment on the outer side of the vehicle in the course of turning. On the other hand, when the vehicle is in an understeer condition during a turning operation, the braking forces of front and rear inside wheels are increased so that yaw moment is generated on the inner side of the vehicle in the course of turning.
However, with a skidding preventing device like the one disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-233195, when an oversteer condition of a vehicle is to be prevented by performing brake control on the wheels, if a driving force from the engine is applied to the wheels receiving the braking forces, a function for adjusting the lateral grip forces of the wheels with the braking forces may somewhat lose effect. On the other hand, if the engine output is over-reduced for preventing an understeer condition, the control may become rather uncomfortable for the driver accelerating with the vehicle while expecting and permitting the understeer condition to some extent.